 |
|
September 3, 2010 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Gene Hoglan
December 5, 2005
By Tony Antunovich
|
Canada's very own STRAPPING YOUNG LAD are on the last leg of their North American tour with headliners FEAR FACTORY and fellow supporting mates, DARKANE and SOILWORK. With some 32 shows played over the course of a five-week period, the SYL machine wrapped up the trek last night in front of a reckless crowd at the Croatian Cultural Centre in their beloved (and very rainy) hometown of Vancouver, BC. METALEATER caught up with drummer extraordinaire Gene Hoglan prior to show time to talk about the band's adventures on tour, their plans for the very near future, and a few extra topics thrown into the mix by Hoglan himself.
So, you're finishing off the North American tour in your hometown. How does that feel?
I've always liked ending tours here, you know, just 'cause usually the band is on fire. Every time we've ever played it used to be like we'd do a Commodore show or something and then we'd just be in the middle of nowhere, and that's not a lot of fun. It's always fun to end off the tour here. It's kind of a hassle too, but at least I live five minutes away, so that's pretty cool; get all your shit together and just throw it in your car and take it home. It's cool to end the tour here; we're pretty fortunate that that's happened. This tour has been really, really awesome so tonight's going to be no different.
Judging from your many postings in the "Kinda-Sorta Tour Diary", it sounds like you guys have really been having a blast.
Oh totally! Absolutely! This has been the best tour that we could have asked for; it's been totally killer for STRAPPING. A lot of great things have happened for us on this tour and we've actually made some cash on this thing, you know. For an opening act to make some dough, that's pretty good. We've been blowing out the merch and just Dev (Townsend) has been on fire every night; the band is on fire; we just don’t give a shit. We're just like, "Fuck you, motherfuckers! You like us or you don't or fuck you!" If you don't, you're fucking retarded - period! So that's the way I feel.
How would you compare the American fans versus the Canadian fans? Is there a difference?
Well, since we are Canadian, that kind of comes in grain when we play Canada. Canada just tends to love us whenever we play somewhere. There's always that bit of "we're all in this together"; and when we're playing in the States, it's kind of like us versus them sort of thing, you know. It's like, "Yeah, we're from Canada and we fuckin' rule and fuck you, you bunch of fuckin' inbred motherfuckers! You're all fuckin' ugly! Buy a fuckin' T-shirt!" And in Canada, usually they get the nicer shows from us; they get the sweeter shows where it's not "us against you". So I think that's how it kind of differs; they get a little different STRAPPING show in Canada.
On one of your postings, you mentioned that some guy came up to you and said something nasty to you.
Ah, I think Dev was probably doing a pro-Canadian speech or something and some guy came up and said, "Fuck Canada! Go back there!" - something like that. He was kind of an older guy and I just think he was probably a little liquored up and didn't like anybody talking anything that wasn't bitchin' about America, you know. I'm fuckin' American, you know, and I'll rag on my own fuckin' country. I have the right to do it and anybody that I'm on stage with has the right to do whatever the fuck they want. So if we want to bitch about something we're going to bitch about it and I'm going to back Devin 100 percent. I don't even know... Dev probably did some stupid thing about how cool Canada is compared to the States; I don't even remember. I just remember this guy coming up and saying, "Fuck Canada!" Canadians get that all the time, you know. If you’re from Canada you're just kind of the forgotten about, tucked away, little retarded brother up in the north. Ah, it's cool. Fuck, who cares?
It's kind of unfortunate that things have to happen that way because you're out there to deliver a show and bring the music to the people.
Oh, absolutely! I didn't think twice about it. I just thought that was kind of humorous, you know… drunk old guy coming up, "Fuck Canada!" It's like, "Alright, buddy. Go have another beer!" It was just something to write about in the Blog the next day, you know.
Sounds like you guys had a blast in Vegas too - and Byron (Stroud) got married.
Yeah, that was awesome! That party was the crusher, man. That was the most raging concert I've ever been to. There were so many people inside the suite that we 3ended up renting and it was so fuckin' amazing. That's pretty much how I wrote about it in the Blog; it was a good time, it was really loud and everybody had a really, really good time. And that was cool. Vegas was definitely happening, man. That was our coolest Vegas show we've ever played, and I think it was FEAR FACTORY's coolest show too because I remember Burton (C. Bell - vocalist) saying, "Wow! This is the coolest show we've ever played in Vegas." He was saying that on stage and I was like, "That goes for us too." Right on, Vegas, on this last trip!
So after this you have a week break before you head off to the UK?
We have three or maybe four days off and then we go to the UK. We leave on like the 9th or 10th or so. Yeah, we start playing in England next weekend. We're going to go destroy England. We rule Britannia! It will be good - five quick shows over there. It will be a quick little money-maker for us right before Christmas. That's always good.
What are your plans for Christmas?
Well, I'm going home for a few days. I come back before the first (of January) and then we start writing the next STRAPPING album in January. We've already started writing it actually. We want to get it completed by the end of March and just keep hitting the road, you know; come up with a really fast, punchy record that's just fully kick-ass. And that's one thing I love about STRAPPING is that we've never pigeon-holed ourselves into one thing, you know. We never will either. The next album will be absolutely different from "Alien", but it's going to kick ass 'cause it's STRAPPING, you know. We didn't try to rewrite "City"; we didn't try to rewrite the chicken feather record ("SYL"); we're not going to try to rewrite "Alien" either. It's going to be a brand new fuckin' sound from us and that's what we try on every record, you know. We try to make every record different from the last one - make it kind of separate. I've always liked that with bands that can evolve and do it well.
You know, a lot of bands evolve and then you just kind of lose track of them after a while; and that's fair enough. And a lot of bands don't evolve at all, like AC/DC or something. You know what you're going to get on an AC/DC record; a KREATOR record; an OVERKILL record. All those bands are awesome, but you know what you're getting. Now VOIVOD - they evolved a lot as they went. A lot of people didn't like their later stuff, but a lot of people only like their early stuff. It doesn't matter to us, man. We have to write music for us. So that's why the next record is going to fully kick ass. It's going to be fuckin' fully brutal and stompin'. It's going to be awesome!
Are you taking a different approach to writing this record since you started writing it already in the back of the tour bus?
Well, I think the different approach that's going to probably end up happening is usually we've taken like six to eight months to write the record, and this time we're going to do it in about a month and a half or two months. But that's an exciting challenge, you know. Let's write some wicked, really short songs. We're "feeling" the short songs right now. We're just punching three and a half-minute/four-minute songs and huge choruses and just brutality. It's going to be cool, man. It's going to be another step for STRAPPING.
From what you're saying, it sounds like it's going to be a lot heavier than "Alien".
Sure. Shit yeah!
"Alien" is pretty heavy though.
Well, that was easy to write, you know. All our albums are easy to write. This next album will be a little bit tougher in the fact that we want to do it so soon and we want to keep everything just rolling forward. It's an interesting challenge, but we're always so good under pressure. We're good like that. Not like there's pressure to write it or anything, but you know, we have to get it crackin'. So we're definitely going to deliver a ripping record. It's going to be awesome!
How is your relationship with Century Media going?
It's killer! Those guys are awesome, man. Granted, they're a small label and it's sometimes hard to find their stuff. They're not pissing with the big boys or anything like that, but as independents go, hell - them and Nuclear Blast, they're the same company now. They're the biggest independent Metal record label in North America. They've been awesome, you know. They've given us a ton of tour support that is not necessarily called for. It is from us, but they don't have to give us tour support; they don't have to give us such a cool deal. Everybody is so behind the band there that it's really heartening to know that, at least in America. The German label is a little weird; if you're not TIAMAT or BLIND GUARDIAN or something I don't know, they don't like it. Having everybody be so into it... and they always pull us aside and say, "Look, we're so into you guys." - and we're like, "Wow. We haven't sold as many records as some of your other really cool bands." - like SHADOWS FALL and LACUNA COIL...
GOD FORBID even. We have so much support from those guys for really nothing. I mean, we're a money-hemorrhaging item for Century Media; but they've been killer and they're great to work with. So I'm looking forward to getting this other one out.
Any idea when it will be released?
Probably by June; I would say June or July of next year. And if it comes out and does great, wicked. If it doesn't, so what? If people like it, awesome! If they don't, we're just going to write another one after that that's going to fuckin' kick ass too. So it's going to be killer!
That's a good attitude.
Yeah.
Is there anything you'd like to say to the fans?
Fuckoff! Buy a shirt!
(laughs)
(laughs) No. I turned into Devin there. No, man, fuck it! Anybody who gets us, thanks! You're smart! If you don't get us, go listen to your fuckin' stupid fuckin' Metal, dude! We're not going to fuckin' slow down or practice Occam's Razor for the general record-buying public. STRAPPING is a very elitist group, you know. If you're into STRAPPING, you're fuckin' one of the core elite, and you should be proud of being smart. If you're into STRAPPING, praise your brain. You're smarter than your buddy who's into fuckin'... fuck, whatever... CHILDREN OF BODOM or something, I don't know. Not to rag on them, but they're an easy band to like I think. A lot of those Swedish bands are easy to like - very polite; very palatable; kind of heavy; cuts and choruses. They're not going to fuckin' rip your face off with a fuckin' "Shitstorm" or an "Oh My Fucking God". So we will not apologize for being better than you. [FIN]
» Official STRAPPING YOUNG LAD Website
|
|
|
|
